Sensex ends below 20K

In a volatile trade, the BSE benchmark Sensex today snapped four—day rally, losing about 26 points on profit—booking and market regulator SEBI’s crackdown on some companies.

The Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index, after gaining nearly 713 points in last four trading sessions, fell by 25.77 points to 19,966.93.

It received a jolt after SEBI barred Murli Industries, Ackruti City, Welspun Corp Ltd), Brushman India and their respective promoters from trading for allegedly indulging in unfair practices.

The barometer of the market shuttled between 20,067.81 and 19,877.12 during the day as investors booked profits in recent gainers like realty, consumer durable, metal and banking stocks. However, a rise in information technologies, auto and fast moving consumer goods capped the losses.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty also lost 18.90 points to 5,992.80, after moving in the range of 6,025.40 and 5,964.25.

The realty sector index suffered the most by losing 4.29 per cent to 2,951.25 as stocks of DLF and Reliance Infra lost nearly four per cent each.

The consumer durable index was second worst performer, dropping 3.63 per cent to 6,386.13, followed by meal index, down 1.25 per cent to 16,190.43 as Sterlite Ind, the biggest copper producer, slid after BNP Paribas downgraded its rating amid a weak trend in non-ferrous metals in global markets.

The fall was cushioned as IT stocks rose on economic data from the United States, biggest market for the sector, raised hopes of hike in revenue. Over 40 per cent revenue of software exporting companies comes from the U.S. and European markets.

As the selling pressure spread over a broad front, the smallcap index fell by 3 per cent to 9,858.98 and midcap sector index by 2.30 per cent to 7,883.02.